LCK plans to expand overseas in latter half of year

Eleven members of the SK Hawks men's handball team have been confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus, a local government said Wednesday. Thirteen players and coaches of the team, based in Cheongju, 150 kilometers south of Seoul, underwent COVID-19 tests Tuesday, after nine people showed signs of fever and cough in the afternoon. Eleven of them tested positive while two tested negative, th...

The other two teams that have secured playoffs are T1 and DRX. T1’s 10-man roster has been a hotly debated topic throughout the season as constant changes to starting members by T1 coach Yang “Daeny” Dae-in did not yield the results that fans expected for the celebrated team at the start of the second round. After many roster changes and criticism from fans, players and esports communities, T1 ...

The online survey conducted by Riot Games Korea involved 1,000 people from ages 14 to 49 who have watched at least one LCK game, to find out specifically about the LCK audience. The average age of people who play LoL was 23, with around 80 percent of the entire player base for LoL being 30 or younger, according to Riot Games. Contrary to the perception that students make up the bulk of esports w...

Lim Hyo-jun, who won South Korea's first gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in short track speed skating, has applied for Chinese citizenship, a source close to the athlete said Saturday. According to the source, the scandal-ridden skater, facing sexual harassment charges, is going through a special naturalization process after receiving an offer from the Chinese Skating Association. "He'll...

The Mid-Season Invitational for League of Legends, featuring 12 teams from regions across the world, will be held in Reykjavik, Iceland from May 6 to 23, according to Riot Games on Tuesday. As the second biggest LoL event of the year, behind only the World Championships in the fall, the MSI was canceled last year due to COVID-19. One of the biggest awards for winning the spring split for teams ...

LCK more competitive, but roster flexibility needs to be improved

A professional volleyball player has abruptly retired after admitting to assault allegations from his school days, the latest black eye to the sport reeling from a snowballing bullying scandal. Park Sang-ha of the Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Bluefangs announced his retirement through his V-League club Monday evening. The decision came three days after Park's middle school classmate accused t...

Professional volleyball's growing popularity in South Korea came crashing down over the Lunar New Year long weekend, as the league's star players got embroiled in a scandal over their checkered pasts as bullies. The V-League, run by the Korean Volleyball Federation (KOVO), saw cable TV ratings for some big matches rival or even surpass those of baseball, the nation's No. 1 sport, in recent years...

Meanwhile, veterans Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok of T1 and Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu of Hanwha Life Esports set LCK records last week, with Faker reaching both his 600th game and his 400th win in the LCK, the first player to do both, while Deft achieved his 300th LCK win, the only active player to do so other than Faker despite playing in the Chinese league for two years. When Faker and Deft -- who, coincid...

TY nears military service, but esports journey continues

The memorial museum dedicated to commemorating the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games opened its doors on Sunday, about three years after the opening ceremony of the quadrennial sporting event. The three-story museum was built at the site of the main Olympic Stadium, where opening and closing ceremonies of the Games were staged, in PyeongChang, a resort town located 180 kilometers east of Seo...

Another player, Jeong “Mireu” Jo-bin of T1’s Challengers League team, posted a written apology on Facebook as he joined T1 in December for badmouthing T1’s Kim “Roach” Gang-hee in a game the previous year. In addition, coach Han Earl of Afreeca Freecs and Seong “Flawless” Yeon-jun of Gen.G Esports received 800,000 won fines from Riot Games for inappropriate behavior in a game in December. Meanw...

BANGKOK (AFP) -- Teenage prodigy An Se-young pushed to victory in a tough game against former world champ Carolina Marin on Friday in badminton's World Tour Finals -- her first win over the Spaniard in Bangkok. The world’s top players have been competing in the Thai capital for three consecutive tournaments in a biosecure “bubble”, culminating in this week‘s World Tour Finals. The young South K...

Those thinking of playing overseas must be prepared to work hard to adapt, says Ignar of Evil Geniuses